CureVac taps Klaus Edvardsen for chief development officer role

German biopharma company CureVac has appointed Klaus Edvardsen (pictured above) as its new chief development officer.

Edvardsen joins CureVac from Merck KGaA, where he led the early- and late-stage global oncology development as a senior vice president and head of global oncology development.

Prior to that, he served as senior vice president and head of global medicines development oncology at AstraZeneca. In this role, Edvardsen was responsible for the overall development strategy for both oncology and haematology.

He has also held leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and at Genmab, working across medicines development within various therapeutic areas.

“I am both honoured and excited to be joining CureVac at such an interesting point in its growth journey,” said Edvardsen.

“Their years of dedicated work on mRNA therapeutics positions CureVac well for bringing future treatments across a variety of indications to different patient populations. I am looking forward to contributing my experiences to the company and its development programmes," he added.

Franz-Werner Haas, chief executive officer of CureVac, commented: “We are very pleased that Klaus is joining us in highly dynamic times for the company. He brings a wealth of experience in both clinical development and product development, with a specific focus on oncology and therapies. Looking ahead, his expertise will be of great value to us as we expand our pipeline, advance our technology platform and further grow our company.”